Back to school organizing

Back to school organizing is important for student success. Young students acquire skills with guidance and supervision. The benefits of organizing include:

School readiness – Students establish a ready-to-learn mindset.

Independence – Students who acquire school readiness skills become more independent with practice.

Accountability – Young students learn accountability when expectations are clearly stated.

Back to school organizing is imperative for older students because they are expected to be independent and ready to master these 3 critical life skills:

Time Management (freedigitalphotos.net Stuart Miles)

Time Management

Time management skills include planning, preparation, prioritizing and re-prioritizing, meeting deadlines. It’s now or never for older students to be able to manage their own time. Parents are no longer supervising and teachers expect students to have these skills by the time they are in the academic setting or workforce.

Step 1 Review: The student should review all of the requirements in school and at work.

Step 2: Plan: Using the review information the student should create a weekly plan and a daily plan. Every night the student should review what he/she accomplished and check what is coming up for the next 2 days. This step will minimize surprises and enable the to make any necessary adjustments. Work on breaking down long term, larger projects into mini-projects. Don’t ascribe to the myth that you work better under pressure and sacrifice quality or accuracy (and even sleep).

Accountability (freedigitalphotos.netimagerymagestic)

Accountability

Accountability includes motivation, initiative and follow through skills. It’s in the older students best interest to have a system for accountability that they can use on a daily basis. It can be as simple as using a checklist, a planner, or an app. Accountability is highly prized in academic and vocational settings. Older students face new distractions especially when they are not living at home. They need to determine what type of daily accountability system works best for them. Students whose learning style is visual need to organize tasks and projects that they can view on a wall calendar and in their planner. If they are auditory learners alarms and notifications will be useful. Other accountability systems include study groups and partners who meet to check in, or text one another at designated times.

It is important to remember that every life skill needs to be introduced when students are young and learn through repetition, practice and success. This is when learning new skills is easier.

Self Care

Overworked, stress (freedigitalphotos.net marcolm)

Older students need to master self care habits. Here are some great articles on different aspects of student self care includes: